Earl of Clancarty (2nd creation) | |
---|---|
Creation date | 11 February 1803 |
Creation | Second |
Created by | George III |
Peerage | Peerage of Ireland |
First holder | William Trench, 1st Viscount Dunlo |
Present holder | Nicholas Trench, 9th Earl of Clancarty |
Subsidiary titles | Viscount Dunlo Viscount Clancarty (United Kingdom) Baron Kilconnel Baron Trench (United Kingdom) Marquess of Heusden (Netherlands) |
Status | Extant |
Former seat(s) | Garbally Court |
Motto | CONSILIO ET PRUDENTIA (By counsel and prudence) DIEU POUR LA TRENCHE QUICONTRE (If God is for Trench, who can be against) |
Earl of Clancarty (1st creation) | |
---|---|
Creation date | 26 November 1658 |
Creation | First |
Created by | Charles II |
Peerage | Peerage of Ireland |
First holder | Donough MacCarty, 2nd Viscount Muskerry |
Last holder | Donough MacCarty, 4th Earl of Clancarty |
Subsidiary titles | Viscount Muskerry Baron of Blarney Baronet 'of Muskerry' |
Status | Forfeited |
Extinction date | 11 May 1691 |
Motto | FORTI ET NIHIL DIFFICILE (Brave and obstinate) |
Earl of Clancarty is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland.
The title was created for the first time in 1658 in favour of Donough MacCarty, 2nd Viscount Muskerry, of the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty. He had earlier represented County Cork in the Irish House of Commons. Lord Clancarty had already been created a baronet in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia in c. 1638, before he succeeded his father in the viscountcy. The title of Viscount Muskerry had been created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1628 for his father Charles MacCarthy. The first Earl Donough MacCarty was succeeded by his grandson Charles, the second Earl; he was the son of Charles MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry, who was killed during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Charles, Lord Clancarty died as an infant and was succeeded by his uncle Callaghan MacCarty, the third Earl. On his death the titles passed to his son Donough MacCarty, the fourth Earl. He supported King James II and was attainted in 1691, with his titles forfeited. His son and heir apparent Robert MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry, served as Governor of Newfoundland but was excepted from the Indemnity Act 1747, which pardoned Jacobites.
The title was created for a second time in 1803 in favour of William Trench, 1st Viscount Dunlo. [1] He had previously represented County Galway in the Irish Parliament and had already been created Baron Kilconnel, of Garbally in the County of Galway, in 1797, [2] and Viscount Dunlo, of Dunlo and Ballinasloe in the Counties of Galway and Roscommon, in 1801. [3] These titles were in the Peerage of Ireland. Trench was a descendant of a daughter of the first Viscount Muskerry, hence his choice of title when elevated to an earldom in 1803. Lord Clancarty had nineteen children and was succeeded by his eldest son, the second Earl. He was a prominent politician and diplomat. Lord Clancarty notably served as President of the Board of Trade and as Ambassador to The Netherlands and sat in the House of Lords as an Irish representative peer from 1808 to 1837. In 1815 he was created Baron Trench, of Garbally in the County of Galway, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, [4] and in 1823 he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Clancarty, of the County of Cork, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. [5] On 8 July 1815 he was entered into the Netherlands Nobility by King William I of the Netherlands and granted by Royal Decree the title Marquess of Heusden (Dutch: Markies van Heusden). [6]
Lord Clancarty's great-grandson, the fifth Earl, is notable for marrying an English music-hall singer Belle Bilton (1867–1906) [7] in July 1889 against the opposition of his father who sold off much of the estate in retaliation. [8] [9] [10] The fifth Earl's eldest son, the sixth Earl, died without surviving male issue and was succeeded by his younger brother, the seventh Earl (the fourth son of the first marriage of the fifth Earl). He died childless and was succeeded by his half-brother, the eighth Earl. He was a ufologist. As of 2017 [update] the titles are held by his nephew, who succeeded in 1995. He is the only son of the Hon. Power Edward Ford Le Poer Trench, second son of the fifth Earl from his second marriage. The Earl of Clancarty sat in the House of Lords as Viscount Clancarty until the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999 and was re-elected as a Cross-Bench Peer on 23 June 2010. [11] [12]
Several other members of the Trench family have gained distinction. Eyre Trench, brother of the first Earl, was a Lieutenant-General in the Army. The Most Reverend the Hon. Power Trench, third son of the first Earl, was Archbishop of Tuam. The Hon. William Le Poer Trench, fourth son of the first Earl, was a Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy. The Venerable the Hon. Charles Le Poer Trench, fifth son of the first Earl, was Archdeacon of Ardagh. His son Henry Luke Trench was a Major-General in the Bengal Staff Corps. The Hon. Sir Robert Le Poer Trench, ninth son of the first Earl, was a Colonel in the Army and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. The Hon. William Le Poer Trench, third son of the third Earl, was a Colonel in the Royal Engineers and briefly represented County Galway in the House of Commons.
The Trench family claims French Huguenot descent, [13] although a Scottish origin is possible. The Barons Ashtown are members of another branch of the family. William Trench, 1st Earl of Clancarty, was the great-grandson of Frederick Trench, whose brother the Very Reverend John Trench was the great-grandfather of Frederick Trench, 1st Baron Ashtown.
Trench Town in Jamaica gets its name from its previous designation as Trench Pen, 400 acres of land once used for livestock by Daniel Power Trench, an Irish immigrant of the 18th century (descendants of the Earls of Clancarty).
The family seat was Garbally Court, near Ballinasloe, County Galway.
There is no heir to the earldom or the Marquessate of Heusden.
When the will was opened it was found that [the 4th Earl] had left everything he possibly could away from his oldest son and heir, with whom he had been at daggers drawn since the divorce suit. The possession of the entailed estates, however, was sufficient to relieve Lady Dunlo, who had now become Countess of Clancarty, from any further necessity of remaining on the stage. A lawsuit was started by the new earl to upset his father's will, and ultimately a compromise was effected, whereby he recovered much of the nonentailed residuary property of his father. Lord and Lady Clancarty have now four sons, the oldest of them twins, and a girl of eleven years of age. Their eldest boy bears the name of Lord Kilconnel. The countess, I may add, is likewise Marshioness Huesden, in the Netherlands.
Richard Le Poer Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty, 1st Marquess of Heusden, styled The Honourable from 1797 to 1803 and then Viscount Dunlo to 1805, was an Anglo-Irish peer, a nobleman in the Dutch nobility, and a diplomat. He was an Irish, and later British, Member of Parliament and a supporter of Pitt. Additionally he was appointed Postmaster General of Ireland, and later, of the United Kingdom.
Sir Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty (1594–1665), was an Irish soldier and politician. He succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount Muskerry in 1641. He rebelled against the government and joined the Irish Catholic Confederation, demanding religious freedom as a Catholic and defending the rights of the Gaelic nobility. Later, he supported the King against his Parliamentarian enemies during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
Charles MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry, called Cormac in Irish, commanded a royalist battalion at the Battle of the Dunes during the interregnum. He was heir apparent to Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty but was killed at the age of 31 at the Battle of Lowestoft, a sea-fight against the Dutch, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and thus never succeeded to the earldom. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Robert MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry was an Irish officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. He belonged to the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty.
William Power Keating Trench, 1st Earl of Clancarty was an Irish aristocrat and politician and later United Kingdom statesman at the time of the Act of Union. His family, through his son Richard, became prominent and hereditary members of the Netherlands' nobility.
Trench is a surname.
William Thomas Le Poer Trench, 3rd Earl of Clancarty, 2nd Marquess of Heusden, styled Viscount Dunlo between 1805 and 1837, was an Irish peer, as well a nobleman in the Dutch nobility. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge.
Marquess of Heusden is a high-ranking Dutch title of nobility retained by the Earl of Clancarty.
Nicholas Power Richard Le Poer Trench, 9th Earl of Clancarty, 8th Marquess of Heusden, is an Anglo-Irish hereditary peer, as well as a nobleman in the Dutch nobility. Lord Clancarty serves as an elected Crossbench hereditary peer in the British House of Lords. His earldom is in the Peerage of Ireland.
Richard Somerset Le Poer Trench, 4th Earl of Clancarty, 3rd Marquess of Heusden, styled Viscount Dunlo between 1837 and 1872, was an Irish peer, as well a nobleman in the Dutch nobility.
Justin McCarthy, 1st Viscount Mountcashel, PC (Ire), was a Jacobite general in the Williamite War in Ireland and a personal friend of James II. He commanded Irish Army troops during the conflict, enjoying initial success when he seized Bandon in County Cork in 1689. However, he was defeated and captured at the Battle of Newtownbutler later in the same year. He escaped and was accused of having broken parole. After the end of the war, he led an Irish Brigade overseas for service in the French Army. He died in French exile.
Sir Valentine Browne, 1st Viscount Kenmare and 3rd Baronet Browne of Molahiffe (1638–1694), was an Irish Jacobite who fought for James II of England in the Williamite War in Ireland.
The MacCarthy dynasty of Muskerry is a tacksman branch of the MacCarthy Mor dynasty, the Kings of Desmond.
Callaghan MacCarty, 3rd Earl of Clancarty was the second son of Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty. Callaghan was destined for a Catholic religious career and entered a seminary in France where his family was in exile during Cromwell's rule. When his elder brother died in the Battle of Lowestoft, and the 2nd Earl, his nephew, died in infancy, he unexpectedly left his religious institution, returned to Ireland, and assumed the title. He became a Protestant and married a Protestant wife. Late in life he converted back to Catholicism.
Ulick Burke, 1st Viscount Galway was an Irish army officer slain at the Battle of Aughrim while fighting for the Jacobites during the Williamite War in Ireland.
Helen Burke, Countess Clanricarde, also styled Helen FitzGerald, was brought to France by her mother fleeing the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, against which her father, the 2nd Earl Muskerry, resisted to the bitter end. In France, she was educated at the abbey of Port-Royal-des-Champs together with her cousin Elizabeth Hamilton. She married three times. All her children were by her second husband, William Burke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde. She was the mother of Ulick Burke, 1st Viscount Galway, Margaret, Viscountess Iveagh, and Honora Sarsfield.
Sir Charles MacCarthy, 1st Viscount of Muskerry, also called Cormac Oge, especially in Irish, was from a family of Irish chieftains who were the Lords of Muskerry, related to the Old English through maternal lines. He became the 17th Lord of Muskerry upon his father's death in 1616. He acquired a noble title under English law, becoming 1st Viscount Muskerry and 1st Baron Blarney under letters patent. He sat in the House of Lords in both Irish parliaments of King Charles I. He opposed Strafford, the king's viceroy in Ireland, and in 1641 contributed to his demise by submitting grievances to the king in London. Muskerry died during this mission and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Maurice Roche, 8th Viscount Fermoy (1597–1670) was an magnate and soldier in southern Ireland, and a politician of the Irish Catholic Confederation. He joined the rebels in the Irish Rebellion of 1641 in January 1642, early for Munster, by besieging Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, a Protestant, in Youghal. He fought for the Confederates in the Irish Confederate Wars and sat on three of their Supreme Councils. He fought against the Parliamentarians in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and was excluded from pardon at the surrender in 1652. At the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 he recovered his title but not his lands.
Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy, 16th Lord of Muskerry (1552–1616) was an Irish magnate and soldier. He fought at the Siege of Kinsale during Tyrone's Rebellion.
William Frederick Le Poer Trench, 5th Earl of Clancarty, 4th Marquess of Heusden was an Irish peer of the House of Lords, a Dutch nobleman, and a deputy lieutenant and justice of the peace of County Galway. He was known for the controversy that ensued after a petition for divorce was argued in 1890, which was based on an affidavit accusing his wife at the time, Belle Bilton, of adultery.